Lately, my jewelry designs seem to be either very simple, or very complex. Yesterday, I made a bracelet as a birthday gift for the girl next door. It was just a simple stretchy bracelet of large, brightly colored Austrian crystals. It’s beautiful, but it took me less thanf 5 minutes to make. Today, I’m working on a crystal and pearl bridal necklace. Yes, another bridal necklace. I don’t know what my deal is with these lately. Like the first bridal necklace, this one is Austrian crystals and freshwater pearls all wire wrapped with fine silver wire. The first one took me almost two hours to make. I expect this one will be near the same.

I need to find a nice middle ground between the simple designs I like for everyday wear, and the complex and challenging designs I really enjoy making. Maybe once I’m finished with this one last bridal necklace…

If you use the words “difficult” and “annoying” to describe how you feel about having a conversation with me, please have the courtesy to REMEMBER USING THOSE WORDS.

I received a letter in the mail a few weeks back confirming that I only have four more classes to complete before I can graduate. Having been in school for so long, I’ve used up all my Stafford loans. Yeah, I know. That was a bad thing. But since I only had to pay for my Spring class and my four Fall classes, I figured getting one more loan wouldn’t be too much trouble. Getting the loan wasn’t any trouble. Getting the amount I need to graduate, however, has been unsuccessful. My school decided I needed $1200 less than what I asked for.

My loan was supposed to cover Spring and Fall. My school will not consider Spring. My loan was supposed to cover books and art supplies. My school will not consider anything but tuition. The best part? My school HAS NOT SET TUITION RATES FOR FALL 2005 YET.

IF tuition and fees remain the same, and IF only six of my twelve credit hours charges program fees, and IF my books and supplies only cost me $123, THEN they would have estimated my loan correctly FOR FALL.

In my next life, I’m doing college better than I did in this life.

I was always pretty happy with my body before the boys were born. I wasn’t like a supermodel or anything, but I didn’t have any complaints. After they were born, it took me a very long time to get back to what I consider my normal size. Actually, last summer was the closest I got to normal, and I was still a couple inches larger than I would have liked. I don’t obsess about it or anything, but it felt good to be near normal again.

In the past year, I’ve gotten a little chunky again. I figured it wasn’t a big deal since I was trying to get pregnant anyway. Anyone who knows me knows that my future plans are always changing, so it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise that we’re back to not trying to get pregnant again. At least for a few years. We’ll see what happens then.

So here I am, a little heavier than I’d like to be, but without the excuse. I wouldn’t dwell on it so much if my clothes didn’t remind me about it every single day. Then there are my helpful children who keep showing me ads on television for diet pills. “You should get that, Mom, so you won’t be fat anymore.” Add to it that my hair is at that awkward growing out phase, and it’s easy to see why I’m feeling so completely frumpy lately. I love being a mom, but I really, really hate looking like one.

I picked the boys up from camp today and things are starting to feel like normal again. It was amazing to see how much milk, bread, fruit, and clean dishes lasted while they were gone for a week. That will all change before bedtime, I’m sure.

They go back to camp in two weeks, only this time it will be for day camp, not resident camp. They’re looking forward to going back, but they’re happy they’ll be sleeping at home.

Before the boys were born, Rob and I spent a lot of time at the bookstore. We’d always pick out two or three books and find a nice corner table to sip tea while I decided if I liked the books I found. With the boys gone this week, we’ve been trying to find that special thing we could do without them, and all week we’ve struck out. Until tonight. Browsing books and sipping tea across the table from my honey turned out to be the perfect date.

A friend of mine suggested I use this time alone to do some reading. He happens to be a brilliant writer and has promised to let me read a bit of his next book as he writes it. How cool is THAT??? Unfortunately, my week off came before he was ready to let me read anything. In the meantime, he’s recommended a book that I’ll be rushing out to find first thing tomorrow morning.

We dropped the boys off at camp yesterday. Lately, I’ve been feeling like I need a little break, so camp came at a good time. I have no idea what I’m going to do with myself during the week though. I plan on eating out at least once this week at a restaurant that serves food on something other than cardboard with plastic forks. We already did a movie/dinner/movie date last night.

I could use this time to get things done, I guess. Only, I don’t know what needs to be done. I’ve already noticed a huge difference in the amount of food that’s not being eaten, and the amount of dirty dishes that aren’t piling up. No dirt on the floors. No toothpaste in the sink. No toys/clothes/dishes left all over the living room. If I didn’t already miss them, this week would be a breeze.

I call them pants and shoes. Or a pair of pants/shoes. Why do fashion people call them A PANT and A SHOE? Have you ever noticed that? I’m watching some fashion show on tv, and the so-called expert stylist will say, “The shoe works well with the pant.”

So, if you have only one leg, is it half a pant? Half a shoe? The funny thing is that the dictionary doesn’t have pants listed. It says:

pant - an outer garment covering each leg separately

Each. Leg. Separately. Why do I find that so funny?

Because I can’t make jewelry as often as I’d like, I spend a lot of time working on the other parts of Whimsy Chick. That is, the parts that don’t require me to spend money. Lately, I’ve been focusing on fine-tuning the visual and written things I’ll be using. Unfortunately, I’m much better at the visual stuff than the written stuff, so the written stuff isn’t getting done. I know what I want to say. I just don’t know how I want to say it. As I get older, I’m finding that I have more and more trouble with words getting in my way. I’m pretty sure that by the time I’m 60, I won’t be able to use language to communicate at all.